The History of the Franks

…of Histories (often wrongly called The History of the Franks) is the major 6th-century source for studying the Merovingian kingdom of the Franks.

Gregory of Tours’s 6th-century Historia Francorum, Denis was one of seven bishops sent to Gaul to convert the people in the reign of the Roman emperor Decius. Little is known of his life; it is believed that he was martyred during the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor…

Bishop Gregory of Tours’s History of the Franks depicts artlessly but vividly, from firsthand observation, the lives and personalities of the four grandsons of Clovis and their fierce queens in Merovingian Gaul of the 6th century. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, of the 8th century, though lacking…

…Tours (538/539–594), for example, wrote Ten Books of Histories, a history of the Franks from the perspective of the old Gallo-Roman aristocracy, and St. Bede the Venerable (672/673–735) composed the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People). For both authors, the invaders, once converted to orthodox (Roman)…

…the monumental Historia Francorum (605–664; History of the Franks), the most extensive history of a barbarian people that had yet been written. He set the arrival of the Franks in Gaul, and their recent past, in the perspective of universal history.